Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1887-05-12
WHITE HOUSE MAIL.
Letters from All Sorts of Applicants
for Pension or Place-Epistles of
the Children.

for Pension or Place-Epistles of
the Children.
The Presidents mail says Washing,
ton correspondent of the New York
| Herald, contains an average of from
100 to $50 letters a day from persons
whose claims for pension are pending
before the department. These people
address the Chief Executive in the. be
lief, probably, that the Pension Office
is next door to the White House and
that theirs is the only letter he may
have received in week.
About one-half of these letters are
sent to Mrs. Cleveland. The writers in
such cases are usually the wives or
daughters of the petitioners. Some of
them bestow upon Mrs. Cleveland such
titles as Her Majesty" Empress"
and other appellations of royalty.
There are few of the letters that do not
contain some touches of human nature.
They are evidently written in the SIM
cere belief that MIS-. Cleveland will as
sist them if her sympathies can be a.
reused. With this object in view a
great mass of detail is set forth in the
communication, which, together with
the obscure chirography aud bad spell
ing, make its understanding matter
of no inconslderable time and labor.
1t may be said in thlsconnection that
neither the President nor Mrs. Cleve-
land is even aware of the existence of
these letters. They are opened by an
unromantic and unsentimental clerk at
the Executive Mansion, from whose
hands they fall into the waste basket
and are meyer heard OF again.
The women who address Mrs. Cleve-
land furnish her with suggestions as to
the better method of presenting their
claim to the President. One of the
plans which a perusal of the letters
show that all women hold in common is
for her to wait until Mr.. Cleveland has
had his supper and then, when.he is en-
joying a quiet smoke in the parlor bring
the matter to his attention. Many of
them tell her that this is the hour of
the day when man 10 most amenable
to argument and that they (the writersl
prefer this as the safest time for pre-
senting their own requests.
The applicants for pensions who
write to the President are. as has been
said, old soldiers, who write In a more
vigorous style than their helpmates and
their language is sometimes Of so re-
bust a nature that it frequently pro-
vokes smile. For example, an Illinois
man who addresses the President in a
letter, says:
The pension officials tell me to get
corroborative evidence from some OF
my comrades. 1 want to say to you
that it is of a hard matter to get
evidence from men who 60 into an &C
tion and never come out again." and
then he continues by saying that his
company went into the Wilderness a
hundred strong, and at the end Of the
seven days. fight there were but nine of
the number who were left to tell the
tale.
Sometimes the letters are written by
children, who begin in this fashion
"Dear Mrs. President Il am little
girl only ten years of age. My papa
does not know 1 am writing this letter.
If he did he would not permit it,"
Then follows pathetic tale Of want
and misery touching enough in its SIM
pie style of treatment, but rendered
doubtly so by the fact of the writer's
youth and innocence.
Several months ago one of these
touching missives chanced to reach the
Presidents eye. Its simple pleading
touched sympathetic cord in the Pres
ident's heart. The little miss begged
the retention of her father on the Board
of Medical Examiners in New Eng
land town in which their home was 10
Gated. She said he was very old and
dying of an incurable disease. The po
sition paid him salary of about 81 20(
a wear, and in view of the fact that hi
could no longer practice his profession
the foregoing sum was their only sourct
of income. The latter concluded ma
| :.xolr -, fhaco xuorIc
"Papa must not know about this. i
| must be secret between you and me
| lie YOU decide to keep him mark an
on the back of the enclosed postal card
and then l will know that you are go.
| ing to grant my wish"
The President sent the letter AMI en-
closure to Commissioner of Pensions
| Black, with the endorsement
''If there are no charges against The
examiner in question you will obligt
me by retaining him in his present po-
| sition."
| General Black investigated the mat
ter, and found that the examiner was
not an old man, but, on the contrary, q
lusty young fellow scarcely thirty years
of age, and that so far from having "a
little girl only ten years of age," be
was not even married.
The telegraph after this couldn't car.
ry his dismissal quick enough to him.
and since that time letters from little
| girls who write without their papa's
knowledge are incontinently destroyed